PayPerks Drives Use of Government Benefits Prepaid Cards

Amazon has filed for a patent on a digital currency that would make it the middle man between the buyer and seller in online transactions. The company says that it would make the payments anonymous, ignoring the real problems of fulfilling a truly anonymous transaction.

From Finextra:

The patent, filed with the US Patent Office on Tuesday, describes a method of exchange that would enable a user to make and/or receive payments without disclosing personal or private information to another party.

Amazon already has money transmitter licenses and would likely leverage those to operate this scheme. One question that remains to be answered is if this move puts Amazon in competition with other payments networks. It does demonstrate Amazon’s continuing interest in the payments business, as the patent application follows the development of Amazon Coins designed for Kindle customers to use as payment for digital content.